24 Olive Street

modeling contentment

So how was your Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful...spent watching the parade & some Christmas movies. All of the new recipes I tried turned out great...with the exception of one. The french silk pie had a weird texture. It had a good taste but something just wasn't right. Plus, I pulled it out of the fridge and after sitting on the counter for about 10 min it got a bit watery in the bottom of the pan. Weird. So I won't be making that one again.

Bummer.

Maybe it's better frozen like they did in the recipe??

Didn't go out shopping on Black Friday. I don't like it. People pushing & shoving each other to save 10 bucks on a video game. I shopped a little online for some things I wanted to get the kids for Christmas but that's about it.

Instead we stayed home, just hanging out. Later that evening I took the kids to see Rise of the Guardians. GREAT movie.

I did go out on Saturday with my oldest daughter to support a few small businesses in my area. First we hit Top Stitch for some red chevron fabric for a few Christmas projects. Then over to Fergusons Cafe for lunch. Great food, awesome people. And they filmed the diner scene from Vision Quest there...one my all time favorite movies from the 80s :) I had no idea how much of that movie was filmed in Spokane til I moved here!

After that we headed over to a local bakery for some candy cane cake pops. YUM! Then we went over to Lollipop Lemondrop, a kids consignment shop, & got a few goodies there. Btw, they have the best lollipops :)

It was a very stress-less Saturday afternoon with my daughter...the kind of Christmas shopping I like!

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With all of this shopping craziness of Black Friday it reminded me of a post from Dave Ramsey earlier this month. Dave Ramsey is one of my favorite financial guys. I have a Finance/Accounting background & I love his envelopes concept. I use them every day and so do my kids :) Such a different (but simple!) way of looking at budgeting money. Cause sometimes budgets can be boring...even for a Finance major ;)

Anyway, he had a post recently about modeling contentment (found here). I absolutely agree with everything in that post.

We live in an area where there are many families who have more than us. And by 'more', I mean the 'tangible' stuff. Things. Toys. Fancier homes. The stuff that, to me, isn't really all that important in my life.

And what's sad is that some (not all) of these people are teaching their kids that these things are important in life. My daughter recently took her ipod nano (that she used her own money to buy last year) to school for a class party. When one of her classmates saw that it wasn't a 'touch' ipod she then said 'oh, yours sucks'.

Spoiled much??

My kids see that some of their classmates have a Kindle, or ipad, or cell phones.

Don't get me wrong, that stuff is fun! But I'm ok living without it. And I want my kids to know that it's ok to live without it. And if you want nice things in life you work for them...and save. You don't just charge up your credit card to have nice things. A lesson that is sadly missed on most people these days.

My life is good. We have a nice home. A few nice things. I'm ok with not having more. I'm ok that my countertops aren't granite. I'm ok with not having an ipad. I'm ok with my trusty pick-up truck that's 11 yrs old and still going strong. I'm ok with not having the latest Vera Bradley bag, or latest electronic gadget, or whatever.

Because when I do get something nice from time to time, or we're able to splurge on a vacation, it's that much more special to me.

And I teach my kids that every day, especially at Christmas time. My kids have always been limited to 3 items on their Christmas list to Santa. And quite honestly it's never been an issue of 'why can't I have more??'. Now that doesn't mean that's all they get. I just don't think it appropriate to take a list of a ton of 'gimme' stuff to the big guy in red. Just my personal opinion.

We pick families off a giving tree & we shop together for those people. My kids get involved in the shopping, wrapping, & delivering of these items.

We donate to the Salvation Army buckets when they're out during the holidays. And my kids donate some of their money. I don't ask them to. They see me giving and it encourages them to give...even if it's just some change.

This year since they've been doing the Financial Peace Junior they are saving the money in their 'give' envelopes for Toys For Tots. In December we'll head out to do some shopping and they can pick out what they want to buy & donate it.

It empowers children when they give.

I'm a firm believer in showing your kids that you don't have to have a bunch of 'things' to be happy. And when they see that all year long it's not really a big issue when Christmas rolls around :)

turkey day menu

Are you cooking for Thanksgiving this year?

Having company over?

Or maybe traveling this season?

We're staying home as always. Last year my dad & step-mom were here visiting so it was nice to actually cook for someone else. But this year it's just us :)

And even though it's just the 5 of us I stil llike to make a nice dinner, pull out the 'fancy' dinnerware & make it special.

So I thought I'd share a few of the recipes I'm using in case you're looking for a little last minute inspiration :) You can find them all on my Thanksgiving pinterest board here.

I usually plan to eat around 2-3pm so it's kind of a late lunch & then we munch on leftovers for the rest of the day. So I try to make some kind of appetizer to tide everyone over until the meal is done. I tried these bacon wrapped smokies last year.

Oh my goodness...SO good! So we'll definitely be having those again.

For sure.

I will also be brining my turkey again. Let me tell you, if you've never brined a turkey you really need to try it. At least once. Seriously. It makes the turkey sooo juicy.

The first time I brined a turkey I pulled it out of the oven & there was hardly any turkey drippings in the bottom of the pan. I thought 'where is it all??' And then, when I cut into the turkey, I realized where all of it was. In the turkey!

By the way, I usually pull my turkey out of the oven about 1/2 hour before it's done & let it sit, covered in foil, on my stove for at least 20-45 min. That way all of the juices have a chance to stay in the meat & won't all come leaking out when you carve into the turkey.

I like to use Pioneer Woman's recipe but you can find tons online. I've also used the one from Williams Sonoma but that's a little pricey. I tried their brining bags last year & liked them but I also have a 5 gallon paint bucket that I use specifically for brining a turkey but I just didn't have the space in my fridge. If you use the bags make sure you turn the turkey at some point so the brine gets all over it.

Now when it comes to Thanksgiving I usually go with the good 'ol standards...like brown & serve rolls & Campbells green bean casserole. But last year I tried 7-Up biscuits. And the next day...I made some more. Oh yes! Here's a couple tips: first, don't try to make them bigger. They just don't turn out right. And I've found that they bake up better in a glass pan. Maybe it's just my pans but they burned in the metal pans.

To go with the biscuits I make a cinnamon honey butter (Texas Roadhouse knock off) but I alter the recipe a bit cause the way the recipe stands tastes too much like honey to me.

I always make mashed potatoes but I'm going to try Pioneer Woman's recipe this year. I like the idea of being able to make it ahead of time. Same with the Creamy Parmesan Corn...I like the idea of throwing that in the crock pot. One less thing I have to think about is one less thing I might forget!

I also want to try making stuffing from scratch. Still looking for a recipe for that. Might use Pioneer Woman's but I'll need to alter it a bit.

For dessert I always make 3 pies: apple for my hubby, pumpkin for me and chocolate for all of us :) This year I'm going to try the french silk pie I pinned instead of the regular 'ol chocolate pie from pudding mix.

And to drink I usually make my holiday punch that my kids love :) Just mix equal parts 7-Up & cranberry juice cocktail.

Now I have to go print some recipes & do my turkey day prep so that tonight we can watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

December Daily 2012 // cover & 1st page

I'm very excited about this year's December Daily! This year I went with the snap album from Simple Stories. I've found that a 6x8 size is perfect for me.

I used some of the November Mini Album kit from Jenni Bowlin to decorate the cover.

I think I might also add some glitter stickles to that little wooden snowflake.

When I stitched 'December' on the tag my sewing machine decided to act up. I was a bit bummed at first but after looking at it I decided I liked the messy stitching and decided to go with it.

Can't change it now!

For my 'intro' page I took inspiration from Lisa Truesdell's album from last year. I love the look of confetti & being able to see the pages behind it peeking through.

Of course, I don't have any pages back there yet...but I will soon!

The album comes with inserts and I also bought some extras. I'm thinking I'll use them for most of the pages & then mix in some other pages/embellishments/tidbits in between.

I'm taking a bit of a different approach to this year's album. I'm not locking myself into a daily approach but rather an overall approach to December. If I don't have any pics one day I just won't do a page that day, it's as simple as that.

We usually have a pretty full December so I'm thinking there won't be too many days that are missed. This album will still give a pretty good look at our month.

I'll be back with another post on organization & some of the goodies that I'll be using for this year's album!

friday

This is what we woke up to this morning.

Whoa! When did winter get here??

I love snow but I was unprepared for this. Not that it's a ton. The roads are just wet. But we were scrambling to find coats, gloves, boots, car scraper!

I figured we'd just get a dusting.

And I also figured I still had time to get the outside Christmas lights up before it got cold. Guess I was wrong! hehe

I hit an estate sale this morning. Thankfully there wasn't a ton of people there. So hard to move through a tiny house (because it's usually a tiny, old house) with a 17 month old!

Oh hey, Addie is 17 months old today!!

Anyway, picked up some vintage Christmas goodies.

They always make me feel so nostalgic :)

Several boxes of old ornaments. Gonna make a wreath out of these beauties!

I {heart} old Christmas lights.

Found 2 boxes. One didn't work. Bummer.

Found an old tree topper, too. Forgot to take a picture of it.

I just loved these boxes :)

I've been thinking about my December Daily for this year, pulling things together.

I'm hoping to work on the cover this weekend and at least cut the pages for the album. I'm using a 6x8 album from Simple Stories. I've found that that size works the best for me.

I would really love to use some of the October Afternoon Make It Merry line...but it's still not in yet and I can't wait around forever!

I wanted to work on some Project Life pages but ran out of printer ink. So either I need to run to the store or just upload a bunch to Costco. That's, I think, the most time consuming part of scrapbooking!

Looking forward to the long weekend. So thankful for our military & families who work so hard to keep us safe :)

Vintage Finds and Handmade Treasures Market

Another great show has come and gone!

All of the pics are from my cell & for some reason weren't the best. Oh well!

The Vintage Finds & Handmade Treasures Market was a lot of fun.

Jennifer & Kathy did a wonderful job and were super nice as always :)

There seemed to be a pretty steady stream of people coming through despite the rainy weather.

My oldest daughter Olivia came with me to help out

And to 'hide' under the table...her little reading spot ;)

I met many wonderful people on Saturday and got to chat with a few other vendors who were my neighbors :) I bought a hoodie from peace within which I cannot wait to wear!

Here's a few pics of furniture pieces I worked on for the show...

This little table had a missing square piece out of the top. Not sure what used to be there. I'm guessing maybe a square tile? Anyway, after painting it I had my hubby cut a piece of wood and I adhered a map of Spokane to the front.

I got a lot of compliments on that one :)

There's also this stool that I painted the same color (I've been playing with some chalk paint lately!)

But after I painted it I didn't like how yellow that wicker looked. I was afraid of that! So it got a fresh coat of white paint!

SO much better!

Do you wanna see one of my not-so-secret weapons for painting?

Yep, it's Press n Seal! So much easier than taping things off. And it adheres to most surfaces. Although on this one I had to press it down several times. But it's still better than tape because I had a kind of 'skirt' to cover the blue parts while I painted the wicker white.

Not to mention you don't have any sticky resido.

I love using this when spray painting lamps to cover the cord & any other parts I don't want painted.

I thought this little table was so cute

I must confess that I have a love/hate relationship with tables that have legs like this. I hate painting them but I'm always so happy when they're done cause they always look so good!

Love chippy, curvy table legs :)

Did you see that card rack I used on my display above?

Here's the before & after pics...

I've been looking for one of these for months. I found that one at an estate sale a few weeks back.

It was very dirty & rusty.

But after a good spray down & some white spray paint it's just perfect! (I didn't worry about the rust that I spray painted over because it's not for sale...just for display!)

I saved my favorite creation for last...

This wreath was a lot of work but so worth it. I used vintage sheet music to make all of the cones.

Even my son gave me several compliments on this one :)

And with that, I'll leave you with a pic of my lovely painting assistant...

Happy Monday :)

it's dark out!

It's barely 5pm and already dark out. I know some people don't like the time change but I do. Makes me want to snuggle up on the couch with some hot chocolate and a good movie!

The Vingage Finds show was great yesterday. Met a lot of great people and had a few booth neighbors that I chatted with all day. I'll share a few pics tomorrow, need to download them from my phone. I wanted to share them via facebook yesterday but I had absolutely no signal out there.

But until then I thought I'd share a few pics from Halloween. We had an 80s girl, a werewolf, and Dorothy.

Whenever Ben put on that mask & growled at Addie she growled right back. hehe This coming from the girl who had stranger anxiety at 4 months old!

And Dorothy had her not-so-cowardly lion :)

Addie also dressed up earlier in the day for the kids school parties as a pumpkin. Btw, I've had that costume since my oldest daughter wore it for her 2nd Halloween :)

I usually make mummy dogs for dinner but this year I did mummy pizzas instead.

They were a big hit...and yummy!

We did a lot of trick or treating this year.

I think we were out for 2 1/2 hours.

Addie made it through most of it but she started getting exhausted & cranky. I think the school parties wore her out. So around 7:30 I dropped her off at home where my hubby was handing out candy & traded her for the cowardly lion - aka Tucker - so he could come out for a bit :)

The kids got a ton - and I mean a TON - of candy. Even some ful sized candy bars which they were totally siked about. In a week or 2 I'll be sending my hubby to work with a big bowl of candy to put on his desk :)

And now it's time to put the Halloween stuff away & start thinking about Thanksgiving & Christmas!